When Lightning Strikes: A Hey Arnold One Shot
by MsSecretivegirl
Summary: 14 yr old Helga wonders what has gotten into Arnold ever since a day at the beach. Why is he always so nervous? Arnold realizes he is a little too aware of bikini clad Helga. A semi-long one shot about a rainy day, an embarrassed and jealous Football Head, a confused blonde teen, and their first kiss. Only rated T for some language here and there. Otherwise, its just fluff. Enjoy!


Hey everyone,

So I know I haven't posted up the fourth chapter of PWATM in months. I apologize greatly for that. I did indeed write it but guess what? I am going to continue now with this story and write another fan-fic (had to work through tons of writer's block and also I'm 18! I've been busy dealing with applying to college and that's done so now it's the preparing to go to college that is happening).

I know that isn't really much of an excuse and I really am sorry it has been awhile but also, the computer crashed. Every single document, including some future chapters were completely deleted. Gone. Poof! Vanished. Can you say depressing? Sigh. I didn't even want to try to write for awhile after that happened. But now everything's fixed and I'm ready to rock and write again. So we're going to go with this as a 'comeback' one shot in a way. Okay? 'Kay.

Please understand that I did NOT abandon my story. I didn't. I will definitely keep writing because I do love it and I do love that you guys actually like what my crazed mind thinks up. Honestly, your support has brightened up my life a lot and I appreciate you all. If I could, I'd give you hugs and kisses (the chocolate kind. Sorry to burst your bubbles if I did. ;D ) and I'd make a little one shot for each of you. So thank you all for still sticking by me and reading.  
In the meantime, while I get my mind gathered from the mental explosion it suffered when my data was destroyed and data-napped ( I don't know… the word just came to me haha), I shall write a little one shot with some fluff in it as a thank you to you guys. I think you guys deserve that and more.

Here Olga is taking care of Helga for the weekend while their parents are out of town. Helga, now fourteen, is best friends with Arnold and -gasp- she's nice to him here! (I love when she's actually nice to him. So much closer to the "him liking Hilda, who is the real self of Helga! OMG YOU LOVE HER, ARNOLD!" feel, you know? Except it actually IS Helga! Okay, okay… you get it xD). Helga and Arnold had gone on a little beach trip a few weeks ago and well… they're growing up. I think we all know that even Arnold will think Helga is a catch and… in a bathing suit? Forget it. He's a goner. Now this is the aftermath.

[Little note: Olga is a little bossier here in this one shot. Thought I'd give a bossy Olga a shot. Why not? :D]

Without further ado, here's:  
_When Lightning Strikes_

Helga mostly kept to herself on the weekends. After a whole five days of dealing with drama from school and family, she just wanted to have some time to herself. She didn't have anything particularly exciting to do but still, time alone was good sometimes.

It was Sunday and Helga was reading a book as she listened to music. _Another boring day_, she thought to herself, sighing as she flipped to the next page, not even thinking about anything other than the characters in her book and whether or not to make some cookies to give to Arnold.

…_Arnold…_  
Helga blinked and instinctively looked up and out of her window from her bed toward the house across from hers: Arnold's house. She sighed again. She had no idea how to figure him out anymore. Her best friend, as of late, had been acting stranger and stranger over the past couple of days. He had been stuttering and falling down over chairs and bumping into walls. _Ever since the beach trip_, Helga thought. _He hasn't looked me in the eye… I don't know what I did. Did I do something to make him angry?_

Suddenly Helga sat up, a defiant glare on her face. 'What is his problem,' Helga asked herself, getting up from the bed and pacing. ' I have no idea what's making him act this way. Something has to be bothering him if he can barely look at me anymore. Embarrassed, maybe –But about WHAT then?'

_Was someone intimidating him?_ Helga's jaw clenched at the thought. She'd kill whoever was bothering her lovely, football head and make it look like the biggest accident that ever hit Hillwood.

"You're going to wear out that carpet if you keep pacing around like that."

Helga looked up and saw Olga, leaning against the doorframe, watching her with a smirk on her face. The young teen shook her head to rid herself of any lingering thoughts and looked up at her sister, annoyed. "You can't knock? Seriously. It's my room. You can't just sneak in here and creep on me."

Olga rolled her eyes, huffing at Helga. "Why would I creep on you, Baby Sister? You are the one who left the door open."

"Well you still should've said something instead of just standing there watching me. You're fucking creepy," Helga muttered.

Olga scoffed. "Just because you are 14 does NOT mean you're old enough for that kind of language. Anyway, I have to go pick up my friends. So I just wanted to tell you that there's a package coming today. Sign for it, please. Bring it inside. Mission complete. Got it?"

Helga frowned," Cut with the dictator voice. I'm not your slave."

Olga laughed and ruffled Helga's head," Just do it. I'll be back later." She walked out and left. A few minutes later, Helga was able to hear Olga's car hit the pavement and drive off.

Helga got up, stretching as she walked across the room and flopped on her bed. She wondered if she should call Arnold, email him, text him, or even use the pigeon mail that he was always trying to get her to use just so she could communicate with him. _No…I should ask him face to face. _If it was something serious, she wouldn't want to have the situation explained over the phone or take four days to get a response back because she actually used a pigeon to ask her questions.

The branches of the tree outside scratched against her window. Helga looked up in shock as a peal of rain began to hit against the glass as lightning flashed through the sky and thunder rumbled loudly. The young teen quickly got up to check all the windows of her house to see if they were closed and to grab some candles and matches in case the storm knocked the power out. Helga wasn't scared of such storms but that didn't mean she liked them. They made her feel as though she could die at any second because of a lightning bolt or of the winds causing a tree to crash into her house.

Instead of thinking of such matters, Helga mused over Arnold again, trying to think of what happened at the beach that could have freaked him out so much that he would be all nervous around her. She only remembered hanging out with some kids from school and having a good time with everyone. What did she do?

"_Helga, are you ready?" The blonde haired girl turned on the spot at the voice of her best friend. Phoebe was wearing a very cute, blue polka dotted one piece bathing suit that looked like a dress and it suited her small frame very nicely. _

"_Oooh, trying to impress Geraldo, are we?" Helga winked at the small Asian girl and Phoebe blushed. _

"_Well Helga, you can't blame me can you?" Phoebe put her hands on her hips, biting her lip. "Gerald and I still aren't friends but we aren't a… we aren't an official mated pair. S-s-so –" _

"_Okay Pheebs. I was just teasing. Nothing to freak about since it makes sense."_

_Phoebe smiled, "Thank you, Helga." Then her mouth twisted a little as she spoke with some teasing of her own etched into her voice. "But what about you? This is a new bathing suit, I see. Who are YOU trying to impress?"_

_Helga did her best not to sound flustered though the slight blush on her cheeks gave her away. "Nobody! Miriam just gave me this since my old bathing suit was getting small on me, that's all," she whispered to Phoebe as they walked out of the changing rooms at the beach and to the spot where their usual friends all were waiting for them including Arnold. The young blonde crossed her arms over her chest in an effort to hide the new pink bikini she was wearing as was trying not to notice how all the boys' eyes seemed to widen when they saw her. Her bikini wasn't skimpy really but it was understandably, a surprise to see Helga in something that wasn't a t-shirt and jeans and well, she DID look very good in it. Helga had grown to be an athletic girl with a very feminine body and was very… erm, well-endowed. _

_Everyone waved and welcomed the two girls as they walked over; the girls swarmed to compliment the Helga and Phoebe on their "ultra-vogue bathing suits, I could just faint from the fabulousness!" as Rhonda put it and the boys were having a small conference of their own._

"_Damn…I know she's been mean to us in the past but…" Harold gulped as he stared at Helga. " I can totally forget about her bitch act with her looking like this. Sid and Stinky whistled under their breaths in appreciation and agreement to Harold's words. _

"_Boy howdy… she is one sexy chick." Sid nodded. _

"_Not better than MY Rhonda!" Curly chimed in with his usual crazed laugh. "But she isn't half bad."_

_Peapod kid, Iggy, and Eugene were adding their two cents into the conversation and all boys were obviously more than occupied with talking over the girls that it came as a surprise when a harsh toned voice snapped at them. "Will you guys just SHUT UP?" _

_Arnold scowled at the boys. "Treat them with more respect will you and stop staring like perverts." He shook his head in anger, muttering. "Helga is better than that."_

_Gerald raised an eyebrow at his friend and put a hand on his shoulder as the other boys immediately shut up in temporary shock at the uncommon outburst coming from the football headed teen. "Man, are you okay?"_

"_I'm fine, Gerald." _

"_You sure?"_

"_Yes…I'm sure."_

"_Shit, Arnold. Sorry. We didn't mean to eye your girl or anything." Harold laughed, "And sorry about saying Helga wasn't a girl in the past. Obviously that isn't true."_

_Arnold narrowed his eyes as Gerald told them to cut it out. _

_Sid grinned smugly, "You would know, Arnold, right? If you care so much, you probably don't want anyone else touching her since you're being this jealous." Stinky snickered with the other boys at this._

"_I'm not jealous, Sid. Will you just stop it?"_

"_Touching her? I didn't know Helga was so easy- !" Harold's voice was cut off as Arnold punched him straight in the mouth, his face livid as he knocked Harold to the ground. "I'm not jealous," Arnold hissed, though he knew he was lying to himself and to everyone there. He closed his eyes and walked away, avoiding Helga's confused eyes as he passed by her. She hadn't seen or heard what had been said and Arnold was thankful that she hadn't. He didn't want her to see how he had lost his temper so easily especially over something to embarrassing._

_Okay, it wasn't that Arnold was only mad at the guys out of jealousy. Arnold walked quickly over to a man selling snow cones as he tried to explain to himself what had happened. Part of his anger was the boys' words and obvious eyeing of Helga but it was also, how he himself had reacted to Helga's body that was bothering him. 'The guys' words just made it worse… because I was thinking the same thing.' Arnold swallowed hard; he had been extremely attracted to Helga and had thought of very inappropriate things the second he had seen her in that cute little bikini, with her golden hair just flowing in the wind… _

_Arnold's eyes widened and then closed in shame. How could he have thought of such ungentlemanly things toward Helga? How could he just leer at her the way the other boys did when she was his friend? It wasn't right and he was Arnold! And she was Helga! The young teen thought back on their history together… being together with her was something that he couldn't even imagine when he was younger? Why would he think of something like that now? No one would accept such a thing._

_Arnold, now fully calmed down, walked back so he could apologize to the guys when he saw that everyone was now hanging out together on the sand as though nothing had happened. His eyes flickered over to Helga who was making some impressions of their old teachers from PS 118 and everyone was laughing. He chuckled to himself and watched from afar. "She… really is something."_

_Arnold didn't know it but any casual observer would have said –after observing the goofy grin on his face and his half-lidded eyes- that he was as hooked over that beautiful, blonde knockout over there as anyone could ever be._

Helga sighed to herself, finding it very strange that after Arnold had left the boys with that an angry but blushing expression on his face, he had come back and had acted normally to everyone else but had avoided looking at her directly in the eyes. She had caught him sneaking glances at her but whenever she turned her head to smile at him, he turned away as he rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, looking embarrassed.

_If I didn't know better… I would say he liked me… _Helga blushed, sitting on her own bed and looked out her window again at Arnold's house, ignoring the streaks of water flowing down the glass. _Oh if only that were true! Oh Arnold… If you liked me, even just a little, I would hold you and never let your perfect self ever out of my arms again! _She swooned to herself just as the doorbell rang, interrupting her little internal monologue.

"Ugh. What now?!" Helga got up and left her room, trudging down the stairs as she remembered Olga's package was coming in. As soon as she reached the foyer, Helga opened the door with an annoyed expression on her face that quickly turned to surprise. "Arnold?"

"Hey Helga," Arnold smiled at her before looking down at his shoes and looking back up again nervously. "I got a package for you. Will you sign, please?" He held out a colorfully wrapped box that was about the size of a cereal box and a clipboard for her to sign for it, all while holding an umbrella to protect himself from the rain. Helga took the pen attached to the clipboard, quickly signing her name and taking the package but staring at Arnold in confusion.

"Arnold, what are you doing here?"

"W-well… I was at Mrs. Vitello's getting…" Arnold blushed , unable to look at Helga in the eye but then rambled on. "I left the store and Harvey was outside and we were talking…Then he told me that he was sick and asked me to take over his shift for him and I said yes."

Helga wondered why he was looking so nervous but nodded to Arnold since his story seemed to make sense. _But it's almost like he's lying…_

"Well thanks, Arnoldo…" Helga shuffled a bit and then, feeling a little bold from the frustration of having Arnold avoid her eyes this whole time, she moved onto her tip toes and kissed Arnold on the cheek.

She heard Arnold's quick intake of breath, felt him stiffen in front of her, and her eyes widened as she pulled away from him. _Oh criminy! What the hell am I doing?!_ _Arnold's already been acting like I'm the plague!_ Helga saw Arnold was now staring at her in shock, his face entirely red as he fidgeted awkwardly in his place. _How was this going supposed to help me? He's an 'effin vegetable! _

"Um… T-that was to thank you, Football Head…" Now it was Helga's turn to look down at her shoes, silently praying that Arnold would just let it go and walk away normally.

But instead of him leaving with a smile or running away from her the way she half assumed he would with the way he had been behaving lately, Arnold took out a small bouquet of pink stargazers from the mail bag that was slung on his shoulder. "Ms. Pataki, I have a package for you."

"What?" Helga looked at the flowers with a bewildered expression on her face, her voice soft and surprised. "For me?"

Arnold nodded, putting the bouquet gently into her hands and holding the umbrella over her head as she stared at his face. "For you."

Helga closed her eyes, breathing out slowly through her nose to calm herself and opened them again. Her voice came out in a whisper. "But… _why?" _

Arnold laughed lightly under his breath and he brushed the back of his hand lightly over the side of her face. "Because… I like you." Then he smirked, "So how are you going to sign for this package?"

"I…" Helga blushed, her breath catching as Arnold's face drew closer to hers. His face was so close to hers that she only needed to move her head half an inch and they would be kissing. "Football Head, you're teasing me."

With one hand touching the back of Helga's neck, Arnold pulled her closer and kissed her sweetly. Their breath mingled together in the warm, moist air as Helga let herself practically melt into Arnold's kiss, her thoughts and his stilled as though she and the entire world had stopped just to cherish this moment.

Then the thunder sounded through the air and they broke apart; Helga smiled up at Arnold and laughed. "So I signed off, right?"

Arnold nodded, "Yeah, I believe so." He grinned goofily at her and then tipped his little blue hat in the air. "I'll see you later, Helga."

"Good." Helga watched as Arnold walked off into the street, realizing that covering for Harvey meant he should have gone to the next house to deliver the mail there. The teen smirked to herself as she figured that Arnold had probably planned this with Harvey as an excuse to do all of this_… this wonderful… this amazing…_ "So _not_ a boring day…" Helga swooned a little again as she closed the door and leaned against it.


End file.
